Movies to Focus on Real-Life Polygamous Sect

Mormons are trending in Hollywood. In addition to HBO’s show, “Big Love,” at least two movies are in the works. Both of them are based on memoirs by people who were involved with polygamist Warren Jeffs.

Katherine Heigl (“Grey’s Anatomy”) will be producing and starring in an adaptation of Carolyn Jessop’s book, “Escape.” Jessop was 18 when she married a man who was 32 years older. Later, she ran away from the sect with her eight children.

Movie studios have also acquired the rights to Elissa Wall’s bestselling memoir, “Stolen Innocence.” Wall’s testimony helped convict Jeffs of being an accomplice to rape. Jeffs, a former sect leader, forced Wall to marry her cousin when she was only 14 years old.

Hopefully, there will also be films giving insight to a religion that’s still, for the most part, shrouded in secrecy.